Medicine and nursing in the Spanish Civil War: women who served in the health services of the International Brigades (1936-1939).

The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 had repercussions throughout the world. Even though Western democracies had signed a Non-Intervention Agreement, thousands of foreign volunteers fought on the Republican side. This paper briefly summarizes the issues that directly led to the war, and focuses on the intervention of the International Brigades, the origins of the International Sanitary Service (ISS) and the role played by women at the ISS. These women implemented and collaborated in important and innovative procedures in military medicine, that we analyze below.